Habibie appeals for clam over sensitive issues

JAKARTA (JP): President B.J. Habibie urged the nation on Friday not to be easily provoked by rumors that manipulate polarizing issues such as religious and ethnic group differences and inter-group relations.

"Please don't allow yourselves to be incited by such rumors, because it has been clear and firm that our state is based on (state ideology) Pancasila. We are neither a secular state nor a country which is dominated by a single religion," Habibie told journalists before leaving work at the Merdeka Palace.

The President said he hoped people would see the bloody unrest in parts of Indonesia, including the latest in the Maluku provincial capital of Ambon, as an expensive lesson in boosting their alertness against any provocations by irresponsible groups.

Habibie said he was confident the violence in Ambon would be soon under control especially since all religious leaders had assisted the government in restoring calm there.

"I have received a report from the Armed Forces (ABRI) Commander that the situation is now fully under control," Habibie said.

Minister of Defense/ABRI Chief Gen. Wiranto was expected to arrive in Ambon on Friday evening. The general was in Surakarta, Central Java on Thursday evening to attend a special religious ceremony in remembrance of the late Tien Soeharto, the wife of former president Soeharto.

Wiranto is scheduled to report his findings on Ambon's rioting to Habibie on Saturday.

"The situation in Ambon has been truly brought under control," the President said in a confident tone.

The President's economic advisor, Frans Seda, expressed his hope that people would not kill and denounce each other, and that public leaders would jointly work to calm the situation there and in other parts of the country.

"The President has repeatedly said the burning of churches and other places of worship is not in our nation's culture," Seda said after meeting with Habibie at Merdeka Palace.

Seda, a prominent Catholic, however, quickly said that he did not discuss the Ambon rioting with Habibie.

"Let us step up our harmony and solidarity because the state belongs to all of us, and national development is our mutual development," said the former minister of finance.

Meanwhile, expressions of concern and grief over the communal clashes with religious overtones in Ambon that had claimed 45 lives so far continued to pour in.

The Indonesian Communion of Churches said in its statement that the unrest -- that also caused destruction to places of worship -- was an attack on the religious coexistence that had so far existed and supported order in the community.

"After the Indonesian people's political and economic life was attacked, this unrest in Ambon constituted a attack on our social and community life," the body said in the statement signed by chairman Sularso Sopater and secretary J.M. Pattiasina.

"The worst damage in this incident is that brotherly relations among us have plunged to their lowest depth," it said.

The Justice Party (Partai Keadilan) said in a statement signed by Secretary-general Anis Matta that the military and local government efforts to restore the situation in the province have so far proved fruitless as violence still continued there.

It also urged the government to openly categorize the rioting as religiously and racially motivated rather than as "pure crimes" as the government had insisted so far.

"It is no longer a pure crime as stated by the National Police Chief," Matta said.

The Association of the Indonesian Christian Intellectual (PIKI) expressed grief over the fatal incident. It said the unrest had reached an alarming level and could endanger the nation.

"We express our deepest concern and condolences over various tragedies which have polarized the country and become out of control, flaring up everywhere, including in Ambon," PIKI Secretary-General Peter P. Sumbung said on Friday.

A youth organization, the Eastern Indonesia Youth Muslims Association (IPMIT), condemned the violence in Ambon and insisted that the Armed Forces (ABRI) display its seriousness in handling the unrest.

"We demand ABRI does not just arbitrarily arrest ordinary people. Catch the masterminds," its chairman Moh. Kasim said in a press conference. (prb/edt/01/swe)